“For you are my rock and my fortress; and for your name’s sake you lead me and guide me; you take me out of the net they have hidden for me, for you are my refuge.” (Ps 31:3-4 ESV) –Photo by Susanne Schuberth (Cadolzburg/Bavaria)

What a strange verbalization one might say. Yet in order to get your attention, I decided to put this question the way you can read it in the headline. So, what does it mean to know the gospel? Is it enough for us Christians to have read the Bible, most commentaries, and to know the majority of answers to theological questions? Should we, then, whenever we meet someone of whom we think they might be unsaved speak up and tell them that we already have what they don’t have (as yet)?

If you read my blogs before, you might know that I could refer to God’s spiritual guidance here and that could be true too. Without being led by Him, I do not dare to share the gospel with anyone. But I want to go one step further here and make ourselves familiar with the thought that knowing the gospel also means having entered God’s rest, knowing God and His endless love, and knowing Christ in whose arms we should rest from all our burdens and worries that refer to our past and to our future. And then…. when we live in the NOW in HIM…. we can…. share the gospel whenever we feel nudged or urged by Him to do so. Without resting in God, however, we tend to be in a (great) hurry to do (great) things for God, something which He does not need at all. And being hurried, I know from my own experience that I cannot hear His voice that clearly. Instead, I tend to act and behave as I always did, treading on these well-trodden paths aka old habits.

In order to deepen this very issue, you might like to read another excerpt from one of T. Austin Sparks’ articles that deals with the question of how to follow God into His rest by (I might add: God-given) faith.

Many of us have not really entered into Christianity yet. What do I mean? Well, for one thing, the very door into true Christianity is the door of rest, the rest of faith. The very simple way in which the Lord put it in His appeal was – “Come unto Me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Matt. 11:28). That was to a multitude, and those words are usually employed in Gospel messages to the unsaved. The meaning of the Lord in using those words is given to us here in the letter to the Hebrews, a very much deeper and fuller meaning than is generally recognized in the usage of the simple invitation “Come unto Me… and I will give you rest”. There is something that we have to hear, to detect, in the statement – “There remaineth therefore a sabbath rest for the people of God” (Heb. 4:9; A.S.V.).

A Present Entering Into Rest

If you look at the context, the meaning is something into which the people of God had not entered. “They were not able to enter in because of unbelief” (Heb. 3:19; A.S.V.). They could not enter in. Who were they? – the people of God. It is still the people of God for whom the rest remaineth. Do not let us put that into the future, that is not the meaning at all; that afterward, when we get Home to glory, then we will arrive at the Sabbath day rest, we will enter into rest. It is not something for the tombstone – he or she entered into rest. It is something which remains now as a present thing for the people of God, not in death, but in life. The rest remaineth.

You will not think me too elementary, for you know in your heart, as well as I do in mine, that this matter of heart rest, the rest of faith, is a live question continually, it is coming up all the time. One of the things which is lacking in so many of us is this rest, or, to put it the other way, the things which characterize us so much are fret, anxiety, uncertainty, and all those things which are just the opposite of calm assurance, quiet confidence, the spirit and attitude and atmosphere which says all the time, Don’t worry, don’t fret, it is all right. One thing our great enemy is always trying to do is to disturb that, destroy that, rob us of that, churn us up, fret us, drive us, harass us, anything to rob us of our rest or to prevent us from entering into rest.

It is the rest of faith, not just the rest of passivity, indifference, carelessness. There is all the difference between carelessness and carefreeness. There remaineth, there is still to be had, there still obtains, there still exists, there is still preserved a rest for the people of God – for the people of God. We have no right to go to the unsaved and bid them come to Christ and find rest until and unless we ourselves know that rest. Our testimony and our ministry is jeopardized; weakened, limited and discredited if we are not ourselves in rest; and this is the object of the enemy’s activity in this matter – to discredit us by taking from us that very birthright of our union with Him Who is never perturbed, never anxious, never in doubt as to the issue, the One Who reigns. You see, rest is the practical outworking of our belief that He is Lord, and the very Lordship of Christ is struck at by the unrest of the people of God.

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43 thoughts on ““Should we share the gospel without knowing it… personally?””

I believe that it was St Francis who said, “preach the gospel at all times and when necessary, use words”. So many rely on their understanding and own private interpretations of scripture. The kingdom of God is not talk but power as you stated.

Oh, amen! I so agree with this post. Someone once told me “sheep don’t strive.” It’s a bit funny because they really don’t, they just eat the grass and follow the shepherd. It’s we people who are always so busy, getting Very Important Things done. Meh, it’s mostly just vanity, vanity being our will and how we choose amuse ourselves. Not all bad by any means, but we have to remember to also sit quietly at His feet, to “be still and know that I am,” and that sheep don’t strive.

On the internet I learned that some of the best theologians, those the most familiar with scripture, actually don’t understand it at all, in fact some of them are even evangelizing atheists! So that really convicted me to get into The Word, to come to know His voice really well. The best way to do that seems to be entering into His rest, His peace, sitting quietly at His feet and allowing Him to teach you.

I am glad you agree, dear Gabrielle. Striving to enter His rest means for me being so fed up with my old ways that I permanently knock on heaven’s door to PLEASE (!!!) finally set me free from the little ME.

This was a very good reminder, Susanne. ⭐ I have learned over the years I have been in Christ that Satan’s method is to get us to be anxious and DO SOMETHING! So often in the beginning I felt I had to “do something for Jesus,” something tangible to the five senses to prove that I was still a “good Christian.” I spent days on the streets “witnessing for Jesus” and all I did was turn people off to the true gospel.

God’s way is for us to rest in the completed work of His Son who was able to proclaim from His cross, “IT IS FINISHED!” Only as we walk in the finished works of God in His rest, putting aside our own creativeness and imaginings, can we hear His voice and obey and do the works that God has foreordained us to do. Paul wrote,

“For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” (Eph 2:8-10, ESV2011)

We are HIS workmanship! We cannot do the Spirit’s work from our own fruition. God sees this as rebellion. Jesus made it clear when He said to the disciples, “The flesh profits nothing,” in the economy of God. Only by abiding IN CHRIST can “we live and move and have our being,” in the kingdom of God.

Sister, it is so encouraging to be able to walk with you in this rest as we encourage one another even if it means not writing a blog article for weeks on end until HE gives us something to share. In Hebrews four we read, “Today if you will hear His voice,” to stay on this course no matter what our daily lives bring or the emergencies that arise that may try to get us to take matters into our own hands… No, we must rest just like John did with our head on Jesus’ chest or we will never know the will of God. Jesus demonstrated this so well with His Father, didn’t He?

God bless you as you walk in His great love and confidence in HIS rest,
Michael ❤

I too know this anxiety about wanting to do something for God which can drive you nuts. It seems God does not need our natural senses which long for something tangible. It appears to me, rather, that He Who is Spirit wants us to first rest in His Spirit and THEN… the tangible stuff may come in His time.

Actually, it was you, my brother, who made me more and more aware through your writings about the necessity to enter His rest and to rest in His finsished works. Thank you so much for these lessons! ⭐

Yes, blog writing is no necessity any longer if we rest in Him. Without His rest, we must always DO something… whatever.

Very thankful to share this, now more restful, walk with you, Michael,

“I have learned over the years I have been in Christ that Satan’s method is to get us to be anxious and DO SOMETHING!”

You too?? I love this Michael, that’s it exactly. Satan (and often people around me,)will try to get me worked up into a full blown anxiety attack over what I am going to do about such and such. I can actually feel the enemy groan and wither when I say something like, “I’m going to do nothing but sit back and trust in the Lord.”

For some of us, the door of rest can be extremely hard to find. How well I know the desire to do “great” things, and the clumsiness that often accompanies our attempts. When we are at last prompted by God to speak, speaking from our hearts, in the simplest of terms — about why we have chosen to follow Him, and how much He loves us — is frequently the best approach.

Actually, Anna, the door was VERY hard to find for me! I thought this striving and knocking on heaven’s door to set me free from my old ways, anxieties, fears, and doubts would NEVER end! It has been a long process of slowly entering into a state that has become more and more restful over time. To be honest, my thought rather was that God should somehow press a button and everything should be changed immediately. But noo!! 😉

Yes, I think I know that clumsiness you spoke about, Anna. I assume it is directly related to our flesh while the Spirit, instead, offers a spiritual creativity with which we should simply flow, effortlessly at that.

Being nudged by God to speak from our very heart is surely the best approach! ⭐

I am doing pretty fine, dear Anna, although I had merely three hours sleep last night again (almost always from Sunday to Monday). 😉
I hope you are doing well too. Take care!

Satan makes it a priority to take us out of “the rest of God.” That is the ultimate proof that we should “strive” to enter into this rest. “At rest, In Him.” is my new 4 word, philosophy of life. Thanks for the encouraging words.

Good Morning Susanne! Hi Michael and Anna, and those few others I have come to see on here.

Thank you for this reminder or I should say clarification of what Rest is. Sometimes I get to feeling I “should be” doing something about sharing the gospel when I don’t even fully know how to share it. As Michael said above turning people off. If I do this without feeling the soft gentle nudge to do so, I would just mess up and then walk away feeling, geez, I probably turned that person off and have to ask for Forgiveness from Our Father. And as Anna says, don’t speak until lead to. Even when writing there are times I pause. Trying not to be careless. I think I also learn by trial and error.

You are so welcome, Fred. I believe as long as we are as anxious as Peter was when he denied to have known Jesus due to his old nature’s fear of death, we should not even try to share the gospel. If we think about Peter on Pentecost instead, wasn’t he a completely different man as he was equipped with the power of God through the Holy Spirit’s fire? His sermon was even courageous as he accused the Jews to have killed Jesus. No fear to be killed by them any longer. That is what we need: God’s power, not our own reasoning on how to share what with whom… Thanks for your thought-provoking contribution, Fred!

Thanks. Have you ever felt like you are sinning if you do and sinning if you don’t? That is the conflict that I have some times. I was at a bible study on Saturday and the pastor mentioned family reunions as being a bad thing. Which caused a major conflict for me as every Sunday our family gets together and has a nice meal together. I did pray about if I should go or not. What kept coming to mind was hiding my light and being self righteous for not going.

Fred, I believe we need to get acquainted and familiar with hearing His loving voice more than judgemental stuff from other ppl’s conclusions that sprang from their own bad experiences. Discerning the spirits is crucial in the long run.

Fred, we just had a wonderful family reunion and instead of it causing me any guilt, I was set free of a lot of anxiety. Susanne prayed for us a lot as did I and it really turned out wonderful for everyone. I am not sure where that pastor you spoke of is coming from. “Sour grapes?” Trying to advise others from his own bad experiences?

If I remember right it had to do with the passage that said something about loving your parents more then Jesus. Like not being worthy of him.

I got conflicted about a lot of things. Specially lately. After meeting some one from a group called the last reformation I was lead back to 2 different churches which I started attending on an alternating basis. Even though you mention the church age being dead I still felt guilty a lot by not going. I try to be careful to make sure they are teaching the truth.

Also could you pray for me. I get conflicted and confused pretty easy it seems.

I will keep praying for you, Fred. And I believe you need to go your way as you see fit. Michael and I had to go through a bunch of bad experiences in churches until God woke us up. It was all His doing and He will lead you too. In His time we will all recognize the truth and the way we should go. But sometimes it is not so much an outward thing, this way. It is more about being drawn toward God and less and less pulled away and confused by what men say to us.

Susanne, this was timely, as your words have been lately. I recently stopped all forms of ‘talking about God’ with those in my circle. The experience was a deeper revelation of the truth of Christ, the Gospel, and God’s purpose. In it I was stunned to know I had been doing what I (Becky, apart from God) do best, rather than following His leading. I have lived off of others compliments for too long (sigh) and was going after more of the same. Not so much their compliments, but the words they gave me, I was attempting to live into them, write unto them. If that makes any sense. And I’m not sure I even have the language for what has been happening, but I knew that I was to stop doing what I had been doing. I used to pray before meals with my husband and I. I had done it for 7 or 8 years now. I thought it’s what a “good Christian wife” should do with her unbelieving husband (groan). There are no longer any prayers. Reading Oswald Chambers yesterday (August 1) and he wrote this that resonated so deeply: “We must learn to keep our mouths shut and our spirits alert.” Oh, Susanne! His Hand has been over my mouth! My tongue has been tied and my hands have been loosed, in service and in love to those around me.

This is my reason for commenting today. It comes from Sparks’ “That They May All Be One, Even As We Are One.” This quote is from Meeting Five – Worshipping in Spirit and in Truth (SO good!): “No one can understand the Gospels truly until they have received the Holy Spirit, and have come into a true, deep, experience of death with Christ, burial with Christ, and resurrection with Christ; because that experience, not that doctrine, that experience brings an open heaven.”

I once presumed that everyone around me, all the unbelieving friends and family members, didn’t “understand the Gospel” because of legalism and hypocrites. Which isn’t to say that along those lines there isn’t confusion of the truth. But it’s deeper than that. It’s so much deeper than that. I also once believed that everyone who has that doctrine or knows that doctrine better than I were superior to me. Through Sparks’ writings and a up close and personal experience in my life, I am coming to see that those may not have an ‘open heaven.’ There is flesh and there is Spirit. The battle is fierce to keep us blind or lead us back under the covers that once blinded us. But whom the Son sets free, is free indeed!

I am glad it was timely, Becky. Indeed, it is very difficult for the flesh, even impossible, to not seek man’s approval but to simply listen to God to guide ALL our steps. Without enduring the cross and suffering we will not be able to only look to Him who shares the fruit of the spirit with us whenever we obey Him. However, He is all worth it!

Hello: I am reminded that we are to be about the Fathers business and that Jesus only did what He saw His Father doing.
When we are told by the Holy Spirit to speak, give a track, etc…this is when things move. Seeds are TRULY planted in these divine connections/appointments. Oh my, heaven opens up and things rock and roll. The Father is glorified and the Holy Spirit leaps in our body with joy. When we obey and follow His promptings something is going to happen whether or not we ‘see’ it at that moment or not.
Shoving the gospel down someones throat is not from God. Forceful moves ‘to do something’ for the Lord is religion and legalism.
May we all learn to listen, obey and act upon that which is spoken to us by our Holy Father. When we do, Heaven will break forth into rejoicing.
I am reminded this is not about me but as Jesus said, By myself I can do nothing; I judge only as I hear, and my judgment is just, for I seek not to please myself but him who sent me.
Shalom Susanne.
BTW: came upon this sermon right after reading this post.
[link removed]
CR Oliver-En Punto (meaning on the mark)
Speaks on obedience.

As for the link to the sermon which I removed as I would sense a charismatic spirit in this guy which is not from God, I think there is an English wording for the Spanish expression “en punto” since he said it did not exist. Isn’t it “on time”?

“Dos en punto” would be “two o’clock ”
Or we would say “two o’clock on the dot.”
Or it can mean “To the point” as in “not beating around the bush,” like the way Jesus spoke without a lot of political correctness or diplomacy. Imagine the rage He would stir up today in our “Christian” culture!

Susanne, I was just reading Clarence Larkin’s book, Rightly Dividing The Word, when I came across a page in his book explaining Christ in you. The test of true Discipleship is fruitbearing, and it made me think of your latest post here.

He states, per Gal. 5:22-23, here we have nine kinds of “fruit” that the “Child of God” is expected to bear. To some of God’s dear children, the effort to be good and fruitful is a continuous strain, but they have not learned the secret; it is not trying to be good, but it is to let the Holy Spirit have His way with us. It is His business to bring forth fruit in our lives if we will let Him. The branch is not responsible for fruitbearing, that is the work of the vine. It is the “sap” that produces fruit. All the branch has to do is to let the “sap” flow through it and do its office work and fruit will of necessity follow. BUT if something prevents the proper flow of the sap then there is little or no fruit.

My take on this…the effort on our part is in cooperation, the Holy Spirit does the work in us. Cooperation provides our rest in God.

Thank you very much for your encouragement, Michael! It might be that I got some inspiration today… but alas, I have had no time to write as yet. But in His time it should work… even with a joint article in the days ahead, my brother. 🙂

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“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him."
(John 3:16-17 ESV)

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